Introduction: Preoperative anxiety before cesarean section is a major issue. Nonpharmacologic anxiety control is believed to be more suitable in pregnant women. Auricular acupuncture (AA) is an inexpensive, easy-to-use, and validated intervention to reduce anxiety in different surgical settings. We evaluated the effect of AA on preoperative cesarean section anxiety. Methods: In …
Read More »Electroacupuncture at Liangquan (CV23) improves swallowing
Paraventricular hypothalamus is demonstrated to regulate stress, feeding behaviors, and other related homeostatic processes. However, no direct evidence has been investigated for the role of pentricular hypothalamus in swallowing function. Acupuncture therapy at Lianquan (CV 23) acupoint has been reported to improve the swallowing function in clinical trials, but its …
Read More »Acupuncture beats ibuprofen for dysmenorrhea
Background: Needling and ibuprofen are often used clinically to treat primary dysmenorrhea. However, the difference between the efficacy and safety of the treatment of primary dysmenorrhe is not clear. This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of simple-needling for primary dysmenorrhepatients through a comparison with ibuprofen. Methods: A comprehensive search of 7 …
Read More »Acupuncture improves the effectiveness of antihypertensive drugs
Background: To evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in improving quality of life (QOL) and activities of daily living among elderly patients with hypertension and impaired physical mobility in home health care. Methods: Seventy participants were allocated randomly to receive either acupuncture together with antihypertensive drugs (n = 35) or antihypertensive drugs only …
Read More »Acupuncture improves the effectiveness of antidepressants
Depression is a common psychiatric illness affecting over 300 million people globally. Acupuncture has been reported to be a safe complementary treatment for depression. This study is aimed to investigate the efficacy and mechanism of combining acupuncture with antidepressants in treating depression compared to the sole use of antidepressants. Seventy …
Read More »Acupuncture improves urinary incontinence
Aims: To investigate the additional benefit of acupuncture to pelvic floor exercise (PFE) on the improvement of urinary incontinence and quality of life (QoL) in women. Methods: This was a single-blinded randomized controlled trial in a tertiary university hospital. Women with urinary incontinence in various severity and types were randomized to receive …
Read More »Fire needle is better than standard acupuncture for facial paralysis
Objective: To systematically evaluate the clinical effect and safety of filiform-fire needle in the treatment of peripheral facial paralysis at different stages. Methods: Articles of the randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) about filiform fire needle treatment of peripheral facial paralysis published from the inception of the databases of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, …
Read More »Acupuncture and moxibustion on Sanyinjao (SP 6) relieves cold type dysmenorrhoea
Objective: To observe and compare the effects of different acupuncture and moxibustionmethods at “San-yinjiao” (SP6) on uterine contraction and microcirculation in cold congealing dysmenorrhea rats, so as to explore its mechanism underlying treatment of dysmenorrhea. Methods: A total of 140 female SD rats were randomly divided into normal control, mo-del, perpendicular needling, …
Read More »Acupuncture as good as western medicine for herpes zoster but with less side effects
Background: Herpes zoster is a common skin disease that has a huge impact on the quality of life of sufferers. Antiviral therapy is a conventional treatment, but it still has limitations. This review evaluates the safety and efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of herpes zoster. Methods: We identified randomized controlled trials …
Read More »Acupuncture reduces readmission rates to hospitals for pain relief
Objectives: The prevalence of inpatient integrative medicine (IM) consult services is increasing among academic health care institutions. The diversity of services between institutions, as well as the novel nature of such interventions, makes it challenging for health care administrators to determine the cost/benefit of adding such a program to their institution. …
Read More »